Seaside son plays Bootsy Collins in James Brown biopic 'Get On Up'

SEASIDE &GT;&GT; Justin Hall seems like a guy who's got it figured out. The 21-year-old actor has a life philosophy that's equal parts predestination and perspiration. Where others respond to "How are you?" with customary variations on "I'm good," Hall says: "I'm blessed."

Hall, who spent his formative years in Seaside, is appearing on the big screen starting Friday in the James Brown biopic "Get On Up." He plays bassist Bootsy Collins, who backed up Brown for a year before making his own name in the funk world.

Hall was thrilled to get the role, but not surprised — and the certainty came from more than just nailing the audition. "I'm blessed with this," he said, "but this is my purpose. I'm supposed to be here. ... My life is already planned out, I believe. You just gotta live. You gotta keep doing what you're doing, keep grinding. The doors will open as you keep going down that journey."

It may come as no surprise to you that Hall grew up in the church. He sang in the choir at Greater Victory Temple, where his mother and older brother played the organ and his uncle is bishop. When he was 8, he won a praise dance competition, a feat he credits with breaking through his shyness.

"When I was little, I always held my head down, and my dad and my mom always told me, 'You better hold your head up, 'cause you're gonna be somebody,'" he said.

His parents divorced when he was 12, and he moved with his mom and younger brother to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he remained through high school (though he spent seventh grade at Seaside's King Middle School). He immediately took to a camcorder his parents gave him when he was 13 or 14, his father said, and he started making short films at age 16. He also started seeking out commercial work on his own.

"All of his moves toward (acting), he did it on his own," said his dad, Herman Hall. "He just found ways to get in that door."

After graduating from high school, Justin moved to Los Angeles with $65 in his pocket and a work ethic. He got a job as a waiter after two weeks there, and was working as a telemarketer when he got the call about Bootsy. He has appeared in TV series, movies and commercials, but he's not sitting back and waiting for the studios to knock at his door. He and his friend have a production company, Uprising Artists, that makes short films and a YouTube comedy series called "Opposites Alike." The idea, he said, is to make himself valuable, to show he's a hard worker who's serious about the business.

"You can't just talk," he said. "You have to actually go for something."

'Get On Up'

The role of Bootsy Collins came to Hall after an encounter that can't really be described as chance.

Four months before he got the gig — before it was even on his radar — he was walking down the street with his eyes on the sidewalk and a script in his hand, the telltale sign of someone heading to an audition. "As I was walking, a dude passes me, and he says, 'Good luck and God bless.' I look up, and it's Chadwick Boseman." The future James Brown himself.

"I called my mom, and my mom said, 'You know what that means, right? ... You're gonna work with him soon.' And I said, 'Oh, yeah, of course. I'm gonna work with Denzel too."

Three months later, Hall told his manager to get him an audition for "Get On Up." His manager came back with Bootsy Collins, and Hall got to work, studying videos of the bass player to learn his facial expressions, the way he holds his guitar, how he acts in a room.

"I felt like Bootsy was a guy where, I can portray him, I can really dig deep in this guy," Hall said. "He's interesting and he's unique and this is what I love."

Hall went into the audition in what he described as "Bootsy mind," dancing in the waiting room.

"When you go to auditions, usually you're supposed to be serious," he said. "But I was so in the moment, I couldn't stop moving."

That's one of Bootsy's characteristics that stood out to Hall.

"He's very in tune with his music. When he's on stage, he doesn't care about nothing at all except what's going on in the moment," Hall said. "Somebody could fall on stage and he would never get distracted because he's always in his own world."

Hall's whole experience seems to be made up of moments like these. On set for a big concert scene with 2,000 extras, Hall closed his eyes for three seconds. "I opened them, and all I see is 2,000 people going 'James Brown! James Brown!' It hit me right then that wow ... this is really happening."